Monday, August 20, 2007

JinC Regulars know that last week I posted Brodhead Silent on Boycott Proposal (Error Alert) which included a quote from and link to an NRO post stating Duke’s President, Richard Brodhead, hadn’t spoken out in opposition to a proposed boycott of Israeli universities by a union of British college and university lecturers.

A JinC Regular, Duke Prof Michael Gustafson, quickly reported the NRO post and the part of mine which used it were wrong.

Sure enough, that was the case. You can read Brodhead’s excellent statement opposing the boycott here.

I immediately did what any good blogger would do: I corrected my mistake.

I put an ERROR ALERT, correction and apology to Brodhead and JinC readers at the head of the post.

Because of the seriousness of misstating a university president’s position on so important a matter, and because NRO has an international reach, I also put up a separate post calling attention to the error and providing links so anyone could fact-check: Brodhead Opposes Proposed Boycott.

I was sorry for my mistake but I’d done what I could to correct it, so I went on to a four hour meeting.

I got back home about 7 PM and checked email, JinC and my number counts.

That’s when I learned I was getting “rewards” I didn’t deserve.

There were comments both off- and online praising me for my “integrity” and “having what it takes to admit a mistake unlike the Group of 88.”

Folks, I appreciated those comments but they weren’t deserved.

A big part of my correcting was self-interest. Most of you wouldn’t come here if you knew I wouldn’t quickly acknowledge and correct errors concerning facts.

As for my somehow being better than Group of 88’ers, let’s all remember this: I didn’t mean to post in error concerning Brodhead, so it was easy for me to say I was wrong.

Almost all Duke's 88 were and remain deeply invested in the falsehoods in their “listening statements.” They are still grateful to the people they thanked for “not waiting.” They sincerely believe Duke is the disgustingly racist and sexist place they described in their statement.

Those 88'ers are much like people who sincerely and deeply believe a certain racial or national group is inferior to other groups.

So how can 88'ers admit their errors, much less apologize for them, when they don’t know they’re wrong?

Getting back to ol’ JinC, I did appreciate those nice words even if they were undeserved.

Now something else I didn’t deserve: I got what many bloggers call their “favorite dream:” a link from Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.

Reynolds had posted on the NRO post and somehow he picked on my second post. He used it to call his readers attention to the NRO error.

As a result, I got thousands of visitors.

But there was more. Many other bloggers linked to the correction and praised me.

Again, all underserved.

Closing comments –

I appreciate all the JinC “editors” who point out my errors. I plan a major post citing the “editors” work to knock the false claim that many in MSM make about blogs being unedited and, therefore, untrustworthy.

I’ve made three contacts with NRO to get them to correct. I’ve heard nothing back despite one of the contacts being a phone conversation with a staff member. The last time I looked, NRO hadn’t made a correction.

Special thanks to another JinC Regular, AMac, who put me on to NRO's failure to correct.

I don't know why NRO wouldn't quickly correct and apologize. Who do they think they are: The Raleigh N&O or the NT Times?

Michael Rubin at National Review didn't, and to his/their shame still hasn't. Despite multiple emailed notifications and Insty's attention.

I don't expect error-free perfection from the mainstream media. Just reasonable due diligence to get it right, and good-faith efforts to promptly correct when, inevitably, things get messed up. Good on you for meeting that standard.

As I see it, the MSM, Duke administration, Gang of 88,Mike Nifong, and our other Lacross hoax perpetrators have a lot of character attributes in common. The most noticeable is an unrelenting arrogance and unrepentant streak a mile wide and 10 miles deep. They believe that if they ignore truth long enough, people will eventually forget about the issues and "move on".. Such is the familiar mantra now being uttered on MSM programs when discussing other tragedies and travesties. As if "moving on" clears the record. They willfully choose to let mistakes, errors, and intentional misleadings STAND because the misperceptions serve their agendae and public image of infallibility.

These people have NO regard for honesty and integrity. They have only their "reputations" to guard, regardless of how sullied they permit others' reputations to become.

John, the way you handled your "error" only increased my respect for you.

We all make mistakes. But we need to be careful to correct anything that would dminish the reputation of another, even if that "other" is one with whom we do not agree.

It is PRECISELY THIS ISSUE that has led the informed public to a point of mistrust in the Duke Administration and all who have fallen to the pressures from them to "move on" without cleaning up their own trash.